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And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host,
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.
Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-staves in their hand: and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips;
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes;
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit5
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows,
Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.
Description cannot suit itself in words,
To démonstrate the life of such a battle
In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

6

Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay for

death.

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh suits, And give their fasting horses provender, And after fight with them?

Con. I stay but for my guard; On, to the field:

4 Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-staves in their hand:) Grandpré alludes to the forma of ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. A similar image occurs in Vittoria Corombona, 1612: "he showed like a pewter candlestick, fashioned like a man in armour, holding a tilting staff in his hand little bigger than a candle." Steevens.

5

gimmal bit - Gimmal is, in the western counties, a ring; a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. Johnson.

6

their executors, the knavish crows,] The crows who are to have the disposal of what they shall leave, their hides and their flesh. Johnson.

7 In life so lifeless ] So, in The Comedy of Errors: "A living dead man." Steevens.

8 I stay but for my guard;] It seems, by what follows, that guard in this place means rather something of ornament or of distinction, than a body of attendants. Johnson.

The following quotation from Holinshed, p. 554, will best elucidate this passage: "The duke of Brabant when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet and fastened upon a spear, the which he commanded to be borne before him instead of a standard."

In the second part of Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, Menelaus,

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I will the banner from a trumpet take,

after having enumerated to Pyrrhus the treasures of his father Achilles, as his myrmidons, &c. adds:

"His sword, spurs, armour, guard, pavilion."

From this last passage it should appear that guard was part of the defensive armour; perhaps what we call at present the gorget. Again, in Holinshed, p. 820: "The one bare his helmet, the second his granguard," &c. Steevens.

By his guard, I believe, the Constable means, not any part of his dress, but the guard that usually attended with his banner; to supply the want of which he afterwards says, that he will take a banner from a trumpet, and use it for his haste. It appears, from a passage in the last scene of the fourth Act, that the principal nobility, and the princes, had all their respective banners, and of course their guards:

Of princes in this number,

"And nobles bearing banners, there be dead

"One hundred," &c. M. Mason.

Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens are of opinion that "guard in this place means rather something of ornament, or of distinction, than a body of attendants." But from the following passage in Holinshed, p. 554, which our author certainly had in his thoughts, it is clear, in my apprehension, that guard is here used in its ordinary sense: "When the messenger was come back to the French hoste, the men of warre put on their helmettes, and caused their trumpets to blow to the battaile. They thought themselves so sure of victory, that divers of the noble men made such haste towards the battaile, that they left many of their servants and men of warre behind them, and some of them would not once stay for their standards; as amongst other the Duke of Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet, and fastened to a speare, the which he commanded to be borne before him, instead of a standard." The latter part only of this passage is quoted by Mr. Steevens; but the whole considered together proves, in my apprehension, that guard means here nothing more than the men of war whose duty it was to attend on the Constable of France, and among those his standard, that is, his standard-bearer. In a preceding passage Holinshed mentions, that "the Constable of France, the Marshal, &c. and other of the French nobility, came and pitched down their standards and banners in the county of St. Paule." Again: "Thus the French men being ordered under their standards and banners, made a great shew;"-or, as Hall has it: "Thus the French men were every man under his banner, only waiting," &c. It appears, from both these historians, that all the princes and nobles in the French army bore banners, and of these one hundred nad twentysix were killed in this battle.

In a subsequent part of the description of this memorable victory, Holinshed mentions that "Henry having felled the Duke of Alanson, the king's guard, contrary to his mind, outrageously slew

And use it for my haste. Come, come away!
The sun is high, and we outwear the day.

SCENE III.

The English Cатр.

[Exeunt.

Enter the English Host; GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, SALISBURY, and WESTMORELAND.

Glo. Where is the king?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle. West. Of fighting men they have full threescore

thousand.

Exe. There 's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.
Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.

God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge:
If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully,-my noble lord of Bedford,
My dear lord Gloster, and my good lord Exeter,-
And my kind kinsman, 1-warriors all, adieu!

Bed. Farewel, good Salisbury; and good luck go with

thee!

Exe. Farewel, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it,
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.2

[Exit SAL.

him." The Constable, being the principal leader of the French army, had, without doubt, like Henry, his guard also, one of whom bore before him, as we may collect from Hall, the banner-royal of France.

Malone.

9 - Salisbury, Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.

Malone.

1 And my kind kinsman,] This must be addressed to Westmoreland: but how was that nobleman related to Salisbury? True it is, that the latter had married one of the sisters and coheirs of Edmund Earl of Kent, and that another of them was wife to Westmoreland's eldest son. Salisbury's daughter was likewise married to a younger son of. Westmoreland's, who, in her right, was afterwards Earl of Salisbury, and appears in the Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. The present speaker is Thomas Montacute, who is killed by a shot in the next play. But these connexions do not seem to make him akin to Westmoreland.

Ritson.

2 Bed. Farewel, good Salisbury; &c.] Thus the old edition: [i. e. the first folio:]

"Bed. Farewel, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee;

Bed. He is as full of valour, as of kindness;

Princely in both.

West.

O that we now had here 3

Enter King HENRY.

But one ten thousand of those men in England,

That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What 's he, that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland? -No, my fair cousin:

If we are mark'd to die, we are enough

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold;
Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not, if men my garments wear;

"And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
"For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.

"Exe. Farewel, kind lord: fight valiantly to-day." What! does he do Salisbury wrong to wish him good luck! The ingenious Dr. Thirlby prescribed to me the transposition of the verses, which I have made in the text: and the old quartos plainly lead to such a regulation. Theobald.

I believe this transposition to be perfectly right, for it was already made in the quartos, 1600 and 1608, as follows: "Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day, "And yet in truth I do thee wrong,

"For thou art made on the true sparks of honour."

Steevens.

3 O that we now had here &c.] From Holinshed: "It is said also, that he should heare one of the hoste utter his wishe to another, that stood next to him, in this wise: I would to God there were present here with us this day so many good souldiers as are at this hour within the realme of England; whereupon the kyng answered: I would not wishe a man more here than I have," &c. Malone.

4 My cousin Westmoreland?] In the quartos, 1600 and 1608, this speech is addressed to Warwick. Steevens.

5 By Jove,] The King prays like a christian, and swears like a heathen. Johnson.

I believe the player-editors alone are answerable for this monstrous incongruity. In consequence of the Stat. 3 James I, c. xxi, against introducing the sacred name on the stage, &c. they omitted it where they could; and in verse, (where the metre would not allow omission,) they substituted some other word in its place. The author, I have not the least doubt, wrote here-By heaven,-. Malone.

Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But, if it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.
No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour,
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more:7
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he, which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company,
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd-the feast of Crispian: 8
He, that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil1 feast his friends,
And say-to-morrow is Saint Crispian:
Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars,
And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.2

9

6 It yearns me not,] To yearn is to grieve or vex. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "She laments for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it." Steevens.

7

- O, do not wish one more :) Read (for the sake of metre) -Wish not one more. Ritson.

8

of Crispian:] The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, St. Crispin's day. The legend upon which this is founded, follows:-" Crispinus and Crispianus were brethren, born at Rome; from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion; but because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers; but the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded about the year 303. From which time, the shoemakers made choice of them for their tutelar saints." Wheatley's Rational Illustration, folio, edit. p. 76. See Hall's Chronicle, fol. 47. Grey.

9 He, that shall live this day, and see old age,] The folio reads: He that shall see this day and live old age.

The transposition (which is supported by the quarto) was made by Mr. Pope. Malone.

1-the vigil) i. e. the evening before this festival.

EC2

Steevens

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